More than just pets

By Navi G

Just off Monterey Highway lies a place most people drive by without batting an eye. These rescued animals aren't just some feral wolves or lions. Just as the advertisements say, these precious animals are always looking for open arms and a warm house they could call their own. 

While I was at the shelter, I got the chance to meet Erin Cizan, the senior public information representative for the San Jose Animal Care and Services.  She told me about the shelter and the little cat colony they have just on the side of the shelter, where a couple of unsocialized cats, otherwise known as ferals, reside. 

Erin: “Hi, I’m Erin Cizan, and I'm the senior public information representative here at the San Jose Animal Care and Services. Yeah, squirrel, we have that same problem here—you can see a couple of them sitting on top of one of our shelters. We have a couple of cat communities here. These are unsocialized cats, sometimes referred to as ferals, so we have a community here and a community at the back of the building.”

She gave me the chance to meet some of the puppies that were there. I was able to actually greet one of the pets available for adoption. Waylon was a super shy and nervous boy contrary to his big size as a dog. Though his breed is unknown, that doesn't stop him from looking so handsome and absolutely adorable. He posed for the camera, so obviously this wasn't his first photo shoot.

Waylon is the sweetest, sweetest boy you will ever meet, especially for the bad reputation bigger dogs are given. 

Erin took the time to try to explain to me the statistics for the animals that come in, and the animals that come out between the years 2020-2021. In all, the animals that were transferred to a different shelter or adopted out and for some, it's just going to a foster home until they get adopted and find their fur-ever home.

Erin: “You're looking at these X outcomes transfer is a transfer. For example, if the Humane Society up in Oakland or in the East Bay or one of their other partner agencies, they came down to take some of our animals or a very large—in fact, I think we're one of the largest no-kill shelters on the West Coast. They may be short of dogs or they need some cats, you know, because they want to have animals available to the public for adoption. So they could come down and they may collect some of our animals and transfer them up to another shelter.”

As the shelter over here in San Jose is one of the top no-kill shelters, they do transfer dogs and cats to other shelters in the Bay Area.

Though, there are still some instances where they do have to euthanize an animal. Whether it’s behavioral issues or its health conditions, it is for the benefit of the animal and the other animals around them.

Some of the special animals get left behind at this beautiful shelter because of their needs and perhaps even conditions. Most of the conditions or their needs don't affect their health whatsoever. 

The kitten that we adopted from the shelter is perfectly happy. The only reason she was left behind was because of her condition. It's commonly known as the Wobbly Cat syndrome, which means her movements are sudden, jerky, her coordination is a little off, and her balance isn't too great, but it's very minor and does not show signs of progressing. 

She has been nothing but sweet, as well as not hostile towards dogs or other animals and very clingy, which we absolutely adore. Wednesday has been an amazing addition to our family.

It's cats like Wednesday that need love too, just like any other cat. They aren't that different from your average cat. It's not just the special needs cats; even the older cats need loving homes. 

Kate Amber works for the animal shelter as a health technician and is also a volunteer for Scritch Kittens and Gatos de la Noche, otherwise known as “The Cats of the Night.” They get about 500,000 kittens over the course of the summer. 

Kate: “My name is Kate Amber and I'm an animal health technician at the San Jose Animal Care Center, rescue groups like Scritch Kittens and Gatos de la Noche with trapping feral cats. Mostly I would say I focus on the kittens, and I would say in the summertime, we’ll receive an average of 5,500 over the course of the summer. Yes, I'm heavily involved in the kitten program here.”

During the pandemic, from the shelter's perspective there was a lot of interest in adoptions, fostering and the shelter. In Kate's words, “it was a great time to be an animal at the shelter.”

Kate: “A lot of animals were adopted during the pandemic. We basically cleared the whole shelter. People would come in and they were interested in fostering, they were interested in adopting. It was a good time to be an animal at the shelter.”

Seeing as kitten season is rolling around the corner, it's highly recommended that we try and help the shelter in space and adopt all the adorable animals there at the shelter! Donations of blankets or anything for animals is also highly appreciated! They are starting up a kitten foster program and if you're under 18, you will need a parent to approve and sign for you. They will give you kittens and all the supplies you would need for them and you can babysit them overnight or until they weigh enough to get adopted.

Erin: “You know, under 18, with the consent of your parent—otherwise, if you're over 18, you can just show on up. We even volunteer to be a kitten Foster. We will literally give you a little litter of kittens, maybe kittens with Mom. You can overnight, you can do it for a couple of weeks, you can help with the bottle feeding. You do get volunteer hours for the time if you're spending with the kittens. So the great thing about fostering here with the shelter is we provide you all the supplies that you're going to need. So, you know, you pick up the kittens, we give you all the supplies, you take care of them, you bring them back for the appropriate vet checks, we do all the medical and everything on them when they're old enough to be brought back and spayed and neutered. We take care of all of that and put them up for adoption.”

The shelter offers a wide variety of ways you could help and still get volunteer hours for it.

For the Warrior Times, this is Navi Granado.